The number of Optus customers whose Medicare card numbers were compromised in a recent data breach has been revised from 20,000 to 43,000.
Bill Shorten, the minister of government services, estimated last Sunday that “approximately 36,900” Medicare numbers had been made public.
According to an update published today by Optus, 26,000 expired card numbers and 17,000 current Medicare card numbers were made public.
The carrier stated, “Optus can certify that we have contacted all reachable consumers who had their Medicare card number leaked.”
The finding comes a day after the government unveiled temporary telecommunications rules intended to aid in the identification of those whose information was exposed.
The Australian Federal Police has charged a 19-year-old from Rockdale in Sydney with attempting to blackmail individuals from that list into paying him $2000 after a tiny portion of the hacked details were briefly exposed on a hacker forum.
Police are still looking for the person who carried out the initial hack.
